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Training on Child Labor

Project at a glance

Dates and Place

Organizers

Defence for Children International (DCI)

Project details

Violations of children's rights are still common practice worldwide. Child labour may be a violation of rights in itself since it might deny the child the right to go to school, rest and play, and in two words fully develop.

Defence Children International (DCI) promotes and defends the rights of children to create a more just society, in which children are respected and taken into consideration as active participants. One of DCI's lines of action is to promote and defend children's rights through sensitisation, awareness-raising, training and capacity building. By promoting knowledge of what child labour is and by disseminating tools for awareness-raising, DCI aims at reducing the economic exploitation while empowering members of civil society.

DCI have recently put together a training manual for the use of their delegates in the field. A two-day training session was organised to familiarise DCI delegates with the manual and to provide tips and activities that professional trainers and/or NGO staff may use to train other NGOs and other groups of civil society on the child labour issue from a children's rights perspective. It is expected that through this training a chain process of awareness-raising on child labour may be started. In fact, by providing NGOs with this tool, their capacity to promote training on the issue will be enhanced.

In their turn, the NGOs and groups who benefit from the training will not only gain or increase their knowledge on the issue, but will also receive ideas on how to carry out this type of training.

In the long-term, the chain will contribute to raising awareness on child labour and children's rights at different levels and among several groups of society on a large-scale.

The last day of the meeting was given over to reviewing and evaluating the manual. It was also a chance for all delegates and trainers to give feedback on the previous two days training.

Volunteering Opportunities

To facilitate communication between the DCI delegates, 6 volunteers worked a total of 60 hours, using their skills in English, French and Spanish interpretation. Their participation was essential as the training was given in French and English, and several of those present spoke one language only. Notably, the President of DCI whose mother-tongue is Spanish.